Patrice Lawrence author page

Patrice Lawrence biography

Patrice Lawrence is a writer for children and young people. She was born in Brighton and brought up in an Italian-Trinidadian household in Mid Sussex. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked for more than 20 years for charities supporting equality and social justice, and those themes inform her fiction.

Her first young adult novel, Orangeboy, won the Waterstones Book Prize for Older Readers and the Bookseller YA Book Prize. Orangeboy was also shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book Award. Her second novel for teenagers, Indigo Donut, won the Crimefest YA Prize. Both Orangeboy and Indigo Donut were nominated for the Carnegie Medal.

Her later young adult fiction includes Eight Pieces of Silva and Splinters of Sunshine. Eight Pieces of Silva won the Crimefest Award for young adults, the inaugural Jhalak Prize for Children and Young People, and the Woman & Home Bookclub Teen Drama of the Year. Splinters of Sunshine is a young adult road-trip mystery.

Lawrence also writes for younger readers. Rat, published by Oxford University Press and Barrington Stoke in 2021, is a dyslexia-friendly chapter book for readers aged 9 to 14. The Elemental Detectives is set in London in 1764 and follows Robert Strong and Marisee Blackwell as they investigate a deadly enchanted sleep.

Lawrence has been awarded an MBE for Literature and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She was Writer in Residence from September 2024 to March 2025.

Patrice Lawrence was named the new Waterstones children’s laureate for 2026-2028, and planned to use her appointment to highlight how reading helps communities “connect and cohere” in “times of fragmentation”

Patrice Lawrence teaching resources

• Hachette Schools’ Splinters of Sunshine teaching notes is a nine-page PDF for students aged 12+ with themes, quotes, discussion questions and activities linked to English, Art and Design, Citizenship and PSHE.
• Bloomsbury and CLPE’s Granny Ting Ting teaching notes is an 11-page Brown Book Band PDF for ages 8-9 with five guided-reading sessions, book-talk questions, vocabulary work, Role on the Wall, hot-seating and storytelling activities.
• The Granny Came Here on the Empire Windrush teaching resources PDF provides ten pages of KS1 activities, discussion questions and curriculum links for Years 1-3, with adaptable links for older KS2 covering Black history, Windrush, belonging, identity, family and empathy.
• Scholastic’s The Elemental Detectives: The Case of the Dreaming Dragon Teacher Talk Notes is a one-page KS2 PDF for ages 9+ with a story snapshot, age guidance, big ideas and classroom questions on mystery, magic, secrets and courage.
• Scottish Book Trust’s Patrice Lawrence: What if? provides an Authors Live on Demand page for ages 9-11 and 12-14, with a People Like Stars event, a reading, writing tips, empathy prompts and a character-creation writing activity linked to CfE literacy codes LIT 2-20a and LIT 2-28a.
• Hay Festival Scribblers Tour’s Patrice Lawrence teacher resources is a three-page PDF of YA discussion questions for Orangeboy, Indigo Donut and Rose, Interrupted, covering loyalty, family, grief, music, identity, social media and adapting to different worlds.